'Macron is acting like Trump's lapdog'

Iran told French President Emmanuel Macron that Paris would soon lose its international credibility if it "blindly follows" US President Donald Trump. Picture: Francois Lenoir, Pool Photo via AP

London - Iran on Sunday criticised French
President Emmanuel Macron over his tough stance toward Tehran
and said Paris would soon lose its international credibility if
it "blindly follows" U.S. President Donald Trump.

Tensions between Iran and France have risen in recent months
after Macron said Tehran should be less aggressive in the Middle
East, citing in particular its involvement in Syria's civil war.

Macron, unlike Trump, has reaffirmed his country's
commitment to the deal Iran signed in 2015 with world powers
under which it curbed its disputed nuclear programme in exchange
for the lifting of most international sanctions.

However, he has been critical of Iran's ballistic missile
tests and wants to raise the possibility of new sanctions over
the programme, which Tehran calls solely defensive in nature.

"To sustain its international credibility, France should not
blindly follow the Americans ... The French president is now
acting as Trump's lapdog," Ali Akbar Velayati, the top adviser
to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted as
saying by the semi-official Fars news agency.

Velayati also criticised U.S. Ambassador to the United
Nations Nikki Haley, who last week presented pieces of what she
said were parts of an Iranian missile supplied to the
Tehran-aligned Houthi militia in Yemen. She described the
objects as conclusive evidence that Tehran was violating U.N.
resolutions.

"This claim shows she lacks basic scientific knowledge and
decency. She is like her boss (Trump) as he also says baseless,
ridiculous things. Iran has not supplied Yemen with any
missile," Velayati said.

"FINGERPRINTS"?

Tasnim news agency quoted the spokesman for Iran's elite
Revolutionary Guards, Ramezan Sharif, as saying on Sunday that
"they show a cylinder and say Iran's fingerprints are all over
it, while everyone knows that Yemen acquired some missile
capabilities from the Soviet Union and North Korea in the past".

France took a cautious stance on Haley's report. "The United
Nations secretariat has not, at this stage, drawn any
conclusions. France continues to examine the information at its
disposal," Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman Alexandre Giorgini
said on Friday.

Saudi Arabia, who has long accused Iran of smuggling
missiles to the Houthis and has intervened against them in
Yemen's war to try to restore its internationally recognised
government, welcomed Haley's report.

Iran has one of the Middle East’s biggest missile programmes
and some of its precision-guided missiles have the range to
strike its arch-regional enemy Israel.

Israel has also called for world powers to take punitive
steps against Iran over its missile ambitions.

An Israeli cabinet minister said last month that Israel has
had covert contacts with Saudi Arabia amid common concerns over
Iran.

Velayati said on Sunday that reported meetings between Saudi
and Israeli officials were no threat to Iran as both countries
were "weak and insignificant."

Last month, the Revolutionary Guards warned Europe that if
it threatens Tehran, the Guards will increase the range of
missiles to above 2,000 kilometres.